Monday, June 23, 2014

So proud of my man who Bit the Bullet and went all out with our letter "B" date! Our date was Blessed Bountifully with B's!!! I am apologizing now as although I did take pictures, I pulled my camera out to use and oops I forgot to change the Battery. So it was my camera phone that had to document our night. It has Blurry issues, so I am sorry.

Sitter arrived and we started our night. I posted on facebook that we were headed on Letter "B" date and the guess's started pouring in. That in itself the hubby and I enjoyed, lol! The obvious Bowling and that was my guess too. I was asked to bring socks along. We drove and kept driving all the way downtown. Not a place hubby and I go often. We parked and arrived at our first destination. Mother's Bistro & Bar. Although Mother's starts with "M" we discounted that and just went with Bistro & Bar! It was a restaurant I had never been to before. It was very bright and trendy. We had reservations(FANCY) and so did not have to wait long. Food was fresh and homemade just like mama would make. It was delicious. I was stuffed by the end of the meal.

After dinner we started walking! I could tell hubby had a plan, he had his phone GPS going and hand in hand we walked. We headed towards our next "B" stop the Blue Star Memorial and Battleship Memorial (way to go hubs).

We kept on with our "B" and took a nice stroll on the Boardwalk! We walked and talked and people watched!

If you have ever walked the boardwalk there is always very interesting things going on down there, lol. So it is always a great stroll. We walked until we got to the hmmm can you guess? Burnside Bridge! We stopped and I used this moment for thank you for the wonderful date and smooch time!

Our date was still not over. Hubby out did himself on the "B" date. I told you is was Bountiful with "B". It was such a warm lovely night, so the walking around downtown Portland was wonderful. We headed back into the city and walked until we got to Blitz Sports Bar(do you recognize the name from our "A" date, lol). It was sort of a joke for me since if you go back and read our "A" date post you will understand. I messed up the night of our Art class and we ended up at Blitz (in Tigard) for a drink instead. So anyways, hubs found a Blitz downtown and thought it would be funny to go again, on the real "B" date! So we stopped and enjoyed a drink and some Big Buck (I did not win).

From there we walked some more to the last stop and one of my favorites. To Powell's Books!! I had honestly never been there. It was AMAZING! It was probably almost 10pm and the place was packed.

wall to wall books. Floors and Floors of books, Purple room, rose room, orange room. There was just so many it was unbelievable. We have fun and picked something out for everybody. We have a family of book lovers and always enjoy encouraging that love.

The date was just Beyond wonderful. Hubby did such a great job. It is not about outdoing each other, but like we stated doing things together, trying new things and creating fun memories together. I enjoyed my whole date with hubby and was in the moment and present the whole time! Loved it!

Has anybody else started this challenge? Would love to hear in the comments, I believe this could be an amazing trend for couples. We need to date our husbands and if it takes the alphabet to get us going again so be it! Here is to the Letter "C"!

Monday, June 16, 2014

Our Applebee's Pancake Breakfast is approaching very quickly and we are needing to get tickets sold. Please if you are planning on attending purchase your tickets online via the link on the Event page or from myself or my mom in person or even via mailing a check!! Here is the link to the Event page https://www.facebook.com/events/731361390235873/?ref=br_tf and I will also post the flier. Print it, share it, pass it along. It takes a Village and we would like you to become a part of ours. Thank you for your support.

Yesterday was Father's Day! I did not write a blog as we were busy loving on, and spending time with the main man in our lives, my husband and my childrens Father. We woke up early and did all the animal chores and then I got right to work making a delicious breakfast, while the kids all started hand making fathers day cards. We let him sleep in until 9am when breakfast was done, cards were done and the kids could not hold back any longer from waking him up!

After fueling up, we did not give Dad the day off, we got right to work on some inside house projects that needed to get done since the weather was iffy. It was nice to work together on our Family photo wall (did not finish so no pictures yet). The kids love weekends when Dad is home and spends all kinds of time with them, and I love watching them get to make memories together. We can not wait to get our two newest family members home to share the love of a father also. We love you KC. Thank you for being a wonderful Dad, husband and provider. For working hard at your job everyday and for loving all the children that have come through our home no matter the length of time they stayed!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Wow is our Family taking some hits lately. They always say the Devil knows when you are on the right track and will try and knock you off, by throwing stumbling blocks your way. It is so much easier to walk through these trials though knowing that is what it is. It is from the Devil and we must continue down the path that God asked us to go. He asked and we said yes. It would be so easy to change our minds or look at the challenges we face and say maybe this just is not a good time in our lives.
The weekend was going great, hubby and I got a date night in and Sunday we woke motivated to work on the yard and house. I was getting kids ready to head out to the farm store when my oldest comes running up the stairs yelling, "there is water filling the dog area, it is everywhere". Not what you want to hear. I go running down the stairs to hear the toilet running and see water just pouring over the edge of the bowl. and the dogs standing, looking helpless in about 4 inches of standing water. OH MY GOODNESS! I quickly wade through water to the back of the toilet and shut the water off, and then start yelling instructions to the children to grab any and every towel we own in the house and start soaking water off the carpet. Yes it had gotten to the carpet. I let the dogs outside and start removing their crates and accessories from the house. I run upstairs to garage and get the push broom and started pushing water out kids used every towel they could find in house, including wash clothes and hand towels, we started resorting to dirty clothing. Hubby finally joined in and brought the shop vac. That helped a lot! We got all the standing water out and then started on cleaning of the carpets. Soaking up towel after towel of water and also shop vacing the area. We pulled the carpet up to shop vac the pad and also set up as many fans as we could borrow to start drying it. Oh so not fun at all. We will be assessing the damage over the next week or so.
As for what caused the blockage we have a belly in a pipe going to our septic. We knew it was there and have been so cautious about what we flush etc. Not sure what exactly happened. We did have to call and make an appt for Monday morning to get the blockage cleared. So no water or toilet usage until then, that was fun!

Went to softball and lost horribly, I did hit though and caught the last out, a popfly so that made my day. First game I had played in years. Honestly my goal of the games are to make it through without getting hurt, lol. Body just does not work the same anymore. It was fun though. Came home. Hubby goes to put animals away and I sit down to finish the 25 Kindergarten Graduation hats that I had committed to make. Let me tell ya lots of work when you are working with scissors, glue, and a stapler.

KC comes in and whisper,"something is wrong with one of the ducks". WHAT? "Its leg is all messed up deformed (exaggeration slightly, lol)". With nothing I can do at 9pm at night I decide I will deal with it tomorrow along with the septic issue. UGH really right now is what I was thinking. After dealing last week with our tragic accidental chicken death, I was not sure how the kids would handle losing a duck as well.

Next morning I give kids a heads up that one of the ducks is injured and that I would be taking her to the vet. I was not sure what was wrong or what they outcome would be, of course they were worried. I get them off to school and then head up to check out this leg. She was quacking away for her breakfast as usual, but did not come out of her house. I picked her up and set her on the ground and there she laid. Not wanting to put weight on her leg. GREAT! So I flip her over the best that I can, I do not see any obvious deformity, but she is favoring/protecting the leg and also I can feel warmth to the touch. I know something is wrong. Not knowing which duck this is Snowbelle or Daisy (i know bad duck mom, kids know), I get her settled in an area away from the other animals with food and water. My assumption a goat stepped/jumped on her leg. The goats get jumpy and hyper and ducks just are not fast creatures. The chickens seem to be pretty quick at getting out of the way! I head in the house set up a vet appt for after my septic appt., what a fun Monday this is turning out to be, lol. Long story short take the duck to vet, where we discover she has a broken toe. It is the middle toe and higher up where the toe and foot connect. For a duck this is significant for weight bearing etc. So I can not justify putting a duck down for a broken toe, so splinted and bandaged it is. I currently have another baby to take care of, lol. Although this one I can leave unsupervised most of the day in the front yard. She can not get her bandages wet, if you know ducks they love water and are soooooo dirty and messy. Seriously. they can be gross. She can not be around the other animals, besides her sister. So we are back to square one, duck on the lawn, staying the nights in the garage. Plus she has to go to the vet for splint changes every 3 to 4 days for 5 weeks and I am currently giving her meds by mouth. Oh my farm life. Crazy Lee Farm I tell ya. Here is a picture of her all bandaged up. It is sort of cute, poor thing. She semi hobble/drags herself around, but mainly sits in one spot unless I move her.

So although we had a rough go the last few days we did not let it get us down or stop our joy of living and enjoying life!! Yesterday was AMAZING!! Baby and I went to the post office and mailed off our dossier (all documents and papers) to our agency CCAI for final review. This is the last step before they send them to China! We also mailed a package of goodies and a photobook to a family that will be traveling soon to China. There son is living in the same foster facility as ours and they will deliver his gift to him!! How cool to know that in the next few months our son will see our pictures for the first time!

Then right after we mailed those off we headed over to the Elementary school for little man's Kindergarten Graduation. Where has the time gone? Way to fast do these kids grow. He was so excited for us all to be there. Aunt Sam and Cousin Deacon Little came, and Mimi too! They did a slideshow, and mini skits. He played Humpty Dumpty! So cute. Now he is ready to be a 1st grader he says.

So no matter the storms that are thrown our way we will continue to try and look at the good in our lives. To know that as troubles come, we can pray our way through them and know we are doing good. I am just on cloud nine that we are moving right along and will hang onto that excitement still while dealing with the other stuff. LOL! We are still needing to raise about $10,000 to be fully funded. Our most recent need is the remaining $800 for our CCCWA fee that we will need before our dossier can be sent to China. So I am thinking in the next couple of weeks. If you can help in anyway with donations you can donate here http://reecesrainbow.org/71271/sponsorlee all donations are tax deductible. We can also use prayers. Prayers that all are paperwork is correct. Prayers that the young girl we are also trying to adopt, that her file reaches our agency quickly (it is getting closer, at CCCWA now). Prayers that all our house and animal troubles will resolve. Thank you for supporting our family and becoming a part of our childrens story and village.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Well as most parents know it is easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of life. To put off the importance of maintaining the Hubby and You time. You say you will get around to it, but then weeks, and then months go by and you have not been out ALONE with each other. Well that is what has happened with my husband and I. With 3 young kids, late work schedules, sports, school events, and just life in general, it had gotten away from us. It takes its toll on your marriage and friendship when you miss these times. We know as a couple it is so important to keep that friendship and love alive. The kids will grow up and leave our home one day and we want to still be able to live with each other and enjoy it, lol! So a friend on facebook started this dating her husband from A-Z and I thought it looked so fun! So what better way to jump back into the dating game right, So here we go. I will try and write a post of all our ADVENTURES together. We decided this is a time for us to try new things together, to have fun and rekindle our friendship. We made a rule of no kid or adoption talk on date (cause lets be honest they consume us most of the time). We are both very excited about this and probably a little more me, than the hubby as I enjoy planning and surprising!! Plus the challenge that the letter throughs in is also very fun.

I went first with the planning with the Letter "A". I do have to say I slightly cheated on this after nicely borrowing the idea from my facebook friend, I also borrowed her A activity. BUT, it was something I had always wanted to try, but had not done yet! So this was the perfect opportunity.

Anyways so I got everything planned out and told hubby where to meet me for dinner Friday night after work, first stop Arby's!

SO romantic I know and also a hotspot for a Friday night, lol! Hey, we did almost have the whole place to ourselves so it was actually very private! Had to stick with my A letter and also needed something quick since we had somewhere to be by 6:30pm. We enjoyed our meal and had great conversation. Then it was off to place number 2. Vine Gogh Artist Bar and Studio! How fun, I was so excited for this surprise and part of our date. We got there and KC was a little unsure, as was I, we are not artists. Walk in, give them out name and we are not on the list. HUH? I signed up. I payed. I was so careful to choose the closer location (they have 2 studios). So we are quickly checking, then the kind lady asks what painting I signed up for, I tell her and she nicely tells me that is the painting for tomorrow night. WHAT? But I am on my A date tonight, I have a babysitter with the kids, everything has gone smoothly, how could this happen. Seriously. So we sort of joke it off and look around, inside I am so upset at myself for making this mistake, but the hubby handled it graciously and we decided to go across the street for a drink before heading home, heck we had a babysitter already. So we headed across the street and I made the challenge of sticking with the A theme and ordering a drink that starts with A. We both managed to do that. More great conversation happened and we headed home and called it a night. Oh and lined the babysitter up for the next night same time so we could try our ART part of the date again.

So Saturday does not need much explaining. Sitter came, and we went out AGAIN, lol. We headed back to Vine Gogh and checked in smoothly since we were on the list. We were both still very nervous, but excited to try something new. Let me tell you. If you have not done one of these. Go sign up right now. It was so much fun and both KC and I enjoyed ourselves and felt like we learned something. We brought out our inner ARTISTs, who would have known. I would say date A was a success. I will leave you will a bunch of pictures from our painting time together. I am so excited to see what KC comes up with for letter B!